TUSCAN AND SENESE PASTICCERIA

Senese and Tuscan pasticceria, a secular tradiction

In the early 13th century the SPICES from the legendary ORIENT began to arrive. They were of immediate interest and entered the PHARMACIES of the time (Spezierie) of which many were possessed by the CONVENTS and of the large ABBEYS where one not only healed the spirit but the body as well.

Spices entered all religious fraternal orders, due to their preciousness they were used to barter and were donated as “GOLD” to the monasteries as a tribute of the merchants to the Lord for having allowed them the grace of a safe return.

This is why towards the end of the 1200s, in the Sienese, the first panes pepatos (spiced bread) appeared in the Convent of Montecelso in SIENA, TUSCANY. Its spice based recipe will substitute the primordial PANFORTE, (strong bread) name this way due to its “strong” acidic base.

The person responsible for the use of the SPICES in food and that thought of mixing pepper and panmielato (bread with honey and hazelnuts) was Nicolò Salimbeni, founder of the famous “sienese spendthrift brigade” and famous squanderer, musician (singer-songwriter), and glutton that used his talent to perfect rare seasonings.

The first information of the Panpepati comes from testimonies from 1205 belonging to the Montecelso monastery today found in Fontebecci, in which it reads that some servants and visitors of the monastery were forced to bring ‘panes melatos’ and ‘pepatos’ (Panmielato e Panpepato) to the nuns that lived there as compensation.

The legend tells that the first sienese panpepato was made by Sister Leta, which had broken the mixing plate and therefore mixed the raw materials inside a couple of  pots. Because what they contained was precious, such as clove, pepper, almonds, and sugar which was very rare in that period. Furthermore the flour had mixed with the cinnamon, the coriander and other spices with almonds.

Sister Leta filled a pan  with all the mixture and placed it on the fire. The molten sugar caramelized  and to avoid it from sticking she added honey. This is how Panpepato was born.

We should also add that in the middle ages honeyed bred enriched by the spices would be renamed Peppered Bread (Panpepato) and with the passing of the years would return to the generic name of PANFORTE when one spoke of a sweet prepared with fruit and honey with the optional inclusion of spices.

We should arrive to the 16th century when the sweet began to have a certain diffusion to such a point to be “CONFECTIONATO” by the Convents and by the speziali (pharmacists of the time) that in the spices found  new ways to prepare new medicines, that they would then be used to make excellent Panpepati is a different story.

Towards the half of the XVIII century (TRADUCI) chocolate becomes a part of the raw materials of the time and it was thought that an aristocratic sweet like the Panforte could not do without; this marks the start of the Panforte al Cioccolato.

PANDORO AND PANETTONE
A Sienese creation?

The CURIA VESCOVILE of Siena in 1515 at the completino of the library in the Sienese Cathedral wanted to make a banquet to thank its creator the painter Bernardino di Betto know as PINTURICCHIO. A new sweet had to be made already known in Tuscany and present at the MEDICI’s house banquets in FLORENCE. The light cake based on corn flour , eggs, butter and honey was often enriched with toasted almonds that dressed the cover. It was presented at the celebratory lunch, without almonds, cooked in a mould shaped like a five pointed papal tiara covered in the most pure gold-leaf that made the plate exceptionally striking. Baptized PANE D’ORO (Golden Bread).

Subsequently the dough was enriched with raisins from CORITH, fruits and spices, mixed with honey and cooked in the shape of an oriental tiara to underline the presence of the exotic components from the grapes to the spices. This was the ancestor of today’s PANETTONE.

RICCIARELLI

Originally known as MORSELLETTI because similar to bite-size bits of marzipan, they were also present from the mid-1400s in occasion of the festive banquets.

CAVALLUCCI

Their origins date back to prior the 1500s. Its ancestors called BERIQUOCOLI were tasted together with a glass of red wine or vinsanto.

PANBOSCO

The Panbosco or Pan di bosco (Bread of the woods), due to its ingredients of chestnut flour, was made in the ancient farmhouses of the sienese Montagnola

PANRICCO

This ancestor of the panettone, called Pancosanti or Pandesanti in Siena because it was only made during the period of the burial services. Guido Nannini went back to the original recipe and name PAN RICCO DI SIENA

CANTUCCI

Typical BISCUIT of Tuscany and the CHIANTI countryside, its comes made with  almonds and in many other flavors. After lunch in marries well with Vinsanto

CIOCCOLATO

Guido Nannini adds these pralines filled with flavorsome ingredients to his sweets.

BISCOTTI

All the biscuits of the sienese and Tuscan patisserie are made as they once were with the traditional ingredients. Suitable for breakfast or for tea all year round and in every moment of the day and night

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